Babbitt resigned as the agency’s administrator yesterday
after his boss learned about his Dec. 3 arrest for driving while
intoxicated through a police press release. The FAA’s deputy
administrator, Michael Huerta, was named acting FAA leader, the
Transportation Department said.

Family members of the 50 victims of the Colgan Air crash
Feb. 12, 2009, are concerned that President Barack Obama’s
administration may delay or compromise on a proposed rule that
would restrict the number of hours pilots can work, Scott
Maurer, whose daughter died in the 2009 crash near Buffalo, said
in an interview. Congress directed the FAA to complete the
pilot-fatigue rule, which Babbitt had championed, by Aug. 1.

Huerta, who has overseen the agency’s efforts to build a
so-called NextGen air traffic system, is qualified to take over,
John Hansman, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology
aeronautics professor, said in an interview. Hansman is chairman
of the FAA’s Research, Engineering and Development Advisory
Committee.

The agency is in the process of setting up the satellite-
based navigation system.

Not ‘Particularly Adverse’

The FAA has operated through a series of legislative
extensions as Congress failed to set policy goals for the agency
for more than four years. About 4,000 FAA employees, excluding
air-traffic controllers, were furloughed for two weeks in July
and August when lawmakers disagreed on labor issues and funding
levels. The most recent extension ends in January.

It’s unlikely that Senate Republicans would vote to confirm
the Obama administration’s nomination of a new administrator to
the FAA, Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the National
Transportation Safety Board who now consults on aviation issues
at O’Neill & Associates in Washington, said in an interview.
They hope their party will win the White House and that they
could then appoint a replacement for the five-year position,
Goelz said.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood accepted the
resignation yesterday, according to an e-mailed statement from
Babbitt. Babbitt, 65, was arrested Dec. 3 after police spotted
him driving on the wrong side of the road in Fairfax, Virginia,
police said in a press release.

LaHood told reporters in Washington yesterday that he had
learned of Babbitt’s arrest from the police press release on
Dec. 5. Babbitt initially went on leave after officials learned
of the arrest.

LaHood has spoken out on drunk driving to improve safety on
U.S. roadways. A year ago, he announced a crackdown on drivers
who drink during the holidays.

As FAA administrator, Babbitt oversaw drug- and alcohol-
testing programs for the agency’s air-traffic controllers and
for U.S. airline pilots. Commercial pilots must report drunk-
driving convictions to the FAA.

Sleeping Controllers

“Serving as FAA Administrator has been an absolute honor
and the highlight of my professional career,” Babbitt said in
his statement. “But I am unwilling to let anything cast a
shadow on the outstanding work done 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week, by my colleagues at the FAA.”

Babbitt’s agency was tested earlier this year when air-
traffic controllers were caught sleeping on the job. Nine
incidents in which controllers were asleep or didn’t respond to
radio calls came to light, raising concerns that the overnight
shifts they regularly worked were fatiguing.

The agency adopted several measures to limit exhaustion,
including extending rest periods between shifts and allowing
controllers to listen to the radio while working overnight. It
didn’t endorse napping, which a panel studying controller
schedules had recommended.

Babbitt was an airline pilot for 25 years and rose to
become the president of the Air Line Pilots Association, the
largest pilots’ labor union in North America. At the FAA, where
he was sworn in June 1, 2009, he brought smoother relations with
labor groups, particularly the agency’s controllers.